Yeah, isn't Michigan great Todd? This whole $129 thing is awesome, I saw it and would have gotten in on it, but have no money. Darn. If only the tax refund check was 3 days faster. For those that got in on this sweet, hope you get your cards. The only thing I have heard about this "deal" is that the same laws might not apply to pre-orders. For the simple fact that you can't sell what you don't have. Since they don't actually have the item, they can post it at whatever price they feel like. Hope you get your cards though, and feel free to sell me one for $129.
AuRo
------------------
"You can't hurt The Colonal, because The Colonal likes it rough!" Get Listed!
"You can't hurt The Colonal, because The Colonal likes it rough!" Get Listed!
You know, I've seen some damn long descriptions of where people live, and I was just wondering how freakin' long of a location they actually allow you to write in here. Looks like it's quite a bit. Oh well, if the space is here I'll use it!!! :)
Posts
2,330
Can't belive people are still arguing about this. Companies can change the price on any pre-order up until the time the order is filled, for good reason or not.
------------------ Only 30,000 to 40,000 genes in an Einstein, a Michael Jordan, or a Bach? Boy, can that God guy write tight code or what? - David Rudloff
IMO, Mr. Derek Smart is a hypocrite: Only someone who is either (a) lying (b) ashamed of their products (c) just plain ashamed, would hestitate to give out some simple and straight forward information. - Derek Smart, Ph.D.
Can't belive people are still arguing about this. Companies can change the price on any pre-order up until the time the order is filled, for good reason or not.
cleveland didnt even get his order in,he just had it in his shopping cart and he still wants them to honor it,lol.
cleveland:
DAMMMMMM!!! I have it up on my screen @ 129 and they wont let me finish my order.
Originally posted by Cleveland: Samazon they advertised that price as a SPECIAL PREORDER PRICE. I knew it was low. BB sold a GeForce (Visiontek) G3 Ti200 for $99 last "day after thanksgiving sale". Those cards are still $150 online and $200 in the BB stores. I bought one ..... should I take it back cause i screwed them? It was a rediculously low price , too.
My point is not the "morality" of accepting bargains that are a result of marketing errors, My post was just my way of expressing a mild disgust at how many of the 1400 people who ordered the card are acting as if Best Buy poisoned thier ground water or pipe bombed their grandmama's nursing home. You failed to save a couple hundred dollars, you didn't have that money taken from you.
When your talking to Best Buy, by all means, cry whine, kick and scream. I'm suggesting that when your talking about the subject in this forum you drop the "Victim" routine. Its not the readers of this forum you have convince,it's Best Buy.
Suggestion: If Best Buy doesn't show signs of honoring your purchase, maybe you could secure some kind of discount coupon for the purchase of the card. Shoot for the stars... if you come up short you'll hit the moon..yadda yadda.
------------------
"Who says nothing is impossible??? I do nothing everyday!"
The only way they might legally have to give them the card is if they already accepted the money. Most place will hold the credit card transaction until the item is in stock. this way they are not liable to track down an item that is discontinued that they "sold" to someone, or if they made some hugh mistack (like Best Buy).
It would be nice if they offered something like a $20 coupon off a GeForce4 at the regular price for those few that really wanted to order them because they wanted a GeForce4, not because they heard on the net that Best Buy screwed up.
As for the price of the card it is going to be $400 not $500 and Best Buy likely pays about $300 or so for them. Yes they would loose a lot, but not that much money considdering the size of the company.
AMD Phenom II x4 945 3Ghz | ASUS M4A77TD | 2X WD 1TB SATA 2 hard drive | 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 | nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS | ATI TV Wonder Theater Pro 550 | Antec P-160 case | Antec 650w Earth Watts | LG Blu-ray Super Drive | LG DVD RW | Windows 7 Pro
Maybe best buy will be nice and give you the cards for cost. That way you will still be getting them cheaper than anyone else (since BB buys in very large bulk quanities they get very good prices). And neither you, nor BB will be getting ripped off. They won't loose money and you will get a good (but not totally super awesome) deal.
It is nice and easy in the UK. If a company advertises at a certain price, they have to honour it. This was the case with my CD-Writer, which I picked up for £40 due to incorret pricing, worth at least £80. The guy who dealt with my order didn't care either, mistakes happen, people pick up bargains, and everyone is happy.
Someone I knew once picked up a brand new laser printer for £1 too, due to incorrect pricing on the web site. I hear someone ordered over 200 of them to try and get a stupidly good deal. The company let the customers have one each in the end for £1, which I guess is fair enough, can't complain at that. If they let the customers have hundreds then they would be bankcrupt by lunch
Every once in a while, you'll see a store advertise a price in cents, but put a decimal on it, like it was in dollars...
Once, I saw 2-liters of soda advertised for 0.99¢ and I took them at their word! Laid down a penny, said to keep the change, and began walking out. The bastards stopped me and forced me to pay 10,000% of the advertised price!! I threatened to call the better business bureau and report them for false advertising, but they called my bluff. I just paid the buck and left
------------------
Asus A7V
AXIA T-Bird 1GHz @ 1.30GHz
I think I can make this more interesting. At first I thought that it was a typo by the Best Buy advertising people, but I looked at the Hypothermia website and the ad clearly stated:
VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4600 for Special Pre-Order Price of $129.00..the savings is a $200.00 Value.
That doesn't look like they put a "1" when they ment to put a "3".
Now, if you still aren't convinced that a company will sell a brand new product for less than cost, a while back, my friend managed to get a Radeon 32mb DDR (not the VE) for $100 after it was just released. Normally this item was selling for $300, but was part of a "Promotional Sale."
Where did he get such a great deal?
Best Buy
Give what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose.
1. use the pre-order list to update (or possibly sell) as a mailing list.
2. Possibly they have a special agreement with the manufacturer in order to get the hype wagon rolling, or carry that brand exclusively.
3. plan on cashing in on other pc hardware or software upgrades by those people who are saving so much money.
I find it hard to believe it was a simple error. And this crap has been in the news before. It's way easier to believe that this was purely a gross underestimation of the publics reaction, or just a plan gone wrong. Why did they not catch the "error" before that many orders?
But oh well, I've got more perplexing things to think about. Like the justification for calling unfortunate people, who gave their info (for no other reason than to have it turned into a mailing list), "whiners", and then try to form a relevance between spilled coffee(1 woman...accident, stupidity, whatever), and false advertising (many people+thousands of dollars) and imply that people who reacted to this ad, scour the internet for errors. Did I read that right? if the national corporation is held responsible for their own actions, people who didn't react, will somehow be made to pay?
The entire purpose of shopping on line is to FIND A DEAL. You can't think these people are gullible for thinking they found one.
"VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4600 for Special Pre-Order Price of $129.00..the savings is a $200.00 Value."
Considering how complicated the new Geforce4 card pricing and performance scheme is, I am not suprized that somebody made an error in pricing. The above advertisement probably was intended to read "VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4200, special pre-order price $129.00 a $200.00 value". The Ti4200 IS going to retail at $199.00. I've worked for large and small corporations these kind of mistakes happen. My second point would be this... Why? Why would Best Buy want to PISS off 1400 people?
I've heard the 'marketing strategies' suggested before, and personally i don't buy it.
I'm not denying that companies sell items below costs. But if that was Best Buy's intentions then why did they change thier mind? Because it wasn't thier intentions. And where does this stop? What happens if a discruntled employee at Ford decides to post a sale offering mustangs at 75% off retail? Or if a mistake is made in that sense? That kind of "typo" or "misunderstanding" could destroy a company if it was forced honor the mistake.
I doubt Best Buy wanted to offer a card that would retail for $399 at $129, just to get you on thier mailing list. It would take quite a few "upgrades" and "additional purchases" to make up for the money lost if they allowed everyone who wanted in on this deal to have it.
------------------
"Who says nothing is impossible??? I do nothing everyday!"
[This message has been edited by Samazon (edited 02-12-2002).]
[This message has been edited by Samazon (edited 02-12-2002).]
Originally posted by outside looking in: Can't belive people are still arguing about this. Companies can change the price on any pre-order up until the time the order is filled, for good reason or not.
I don't think they can. Once an offer is made and accepted, they can't change the price. I'm not a lawyer, but I was just reading up on contract law this weekend (for class).
------------------
"What are you, my therapist!?! TAKE A WALK!!!
Interested in more great conversation? Visit JJR512's Board
Athlon 64 2800+
1xWD 1200BB, 1xMaxtor 200GB SATA
Asus K8N-E
2x512MB Corsair XMS3200
Klipsch Pro Media 2.1
Radeon 9800 Pro, Dell 1801FP - WinTV Theater
Sony CRX320E Combo Drive, Pioneer A04
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro - Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical
Win XP Pro SP2
Hope you get your cards though, and feel free to sell me one for $129.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks